A treatise on wood engravings : historical and practical . those who are unacquainted with the process of wood engraving, it isnece,ssary to remark that the parts which appear positively black arethose which remain untouched by the graver. THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 599 The following subject, copied from one of Rembrandts etchings, ischiefly represented by black lines crossing each other. Such lines,usually termed cross-hatchings, are executed with great facility in copperand steel, where they are cut into the metal; but in wood engxaving,where they are left in relief, it requires conside
A treatise on wood engravings : historical and practical . those who are unacquainted with the process of wood engraving, it isnece,ssary to remark that the parts which appear positively black arethose which remain untouched by the graver. THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 599 The following subject, copied from one of Rembrandts etchings, ischiefly represented by black lines crossing each other. Such lines,usually termed cross-hatchings, are executed with great facility in copperand steel, where they are cut into the metal; but in wood engxaving,where they are left in relief, it requires considerable time and attentionto execute them with delicacy and precision. In order to explain moreclearly the difficulty of executing cross-hatchings, let it be conceivedthat this cut is a drawing made on a block, and that the engraversobject is to produce a fac-simile of it: now, as each black line is to beleft in relief, it is evident that he cannot imitate the cross-hatchings seen. in the arms, the neck, and other parts, by cutting the lines continuouslyas in engraving on copper, which puts black in by means of an incision,while in wood engraving a similar line takes it out. As the woodengraver, then, can only obtain white by cutting out the parts thatare to appear so in the impression, while the black is to be left in relief,the only manner in which he is enabled to represent cross-hatchings, orhlack lines crossing each other, is to cut out singly with his graver everyone of the white interstices. Such an operation, as will be evident froman inspection of this cut, necessarily requires not only patience, bat alsoconsiderable skill to perform it in a proper manner,—that is, to cut each 600 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. white space cleanly out, and to preserve the lines of a regular the supposed impossibility of executing such cross lines, it hasbeen conjectured that many of the old wood-cuts containing such workwere engraved in metallic relief
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectwoodengraving, bookye
